written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Saturday 10 September 2011

One Ring to Rule them All

05:59:00 Posted by Ashley Lister 4 comments

by Ashley Lister

My candle burns at both ends
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -
It gives a lovely light.

Edna St Vincent Millay

Unlike my multitasking colleagues on this blog, I don’t have a backburner. I believe I am a camping stove and I only have one ring. And, whilst that sounds like a crude innuendo rather than a cleverly extended metaphor, it has to be pointed out that I’m happy to have one ring and no backburner.

For the last three months, as some of you may know, I’ve been working on a collection of creative writing tips. I’ve had no time to work on anything else whilst I’ve been completing those tips.

Except for my weekly contribution to this blog. And a couple of short stories. And a few bits of poetry. And some articles. And a column I write. And a couple of book reviews.

But none of those pieces of writing ever got relegated to a backburner. For me it’s simply been a matter of prioritising work and getting on with the high-ranking stuff from that day’s THINGS TO DO LIST. With this approach everything always seems to be on the front burner.

Luckily I have a large front burner. I think it’s symptomatic of only having the one overused ring. (I seriously hope this is coming across as a cleverly extended metaphor, and not coarse slang for genital references).

There are projects that have been left behind. Projects for which I lost the time or enthusiasm or necessary motivation. There have been projects that got abandoned because the importance of real life took precedence over black characters on white paper. But, in these instances, I can’t think of this as putting a project on the backburner. It’s somewhere between malicious abandonment and insouciant neglect. Occasionally I might refer to this abandonment as, “pigeonholing a project.”

But I think pigeonholing sounds vulgar.

And would anyone really expect a writer with an exceptionally large front burner, and an overused ring, to say anything vulgar?

4 comments:

Lindsay said...

Thanks for putting a smile on my face after not enough sleep. I hope you don't wear out your ring. Great post as always :)

Ashley Lister said...

I hope he's feeling better soon. I don't think people fully appreciate that a poorly child has serious ramifications on the health of the parents.

Ash

Joanne said...

Nice Blog Ash - I like a blog that keeps my attention to the very end; and this, you do very well. Thanks, :)

Ashley Lister said...

Thanks Joanne :-) It was a tough topic this week.